TESTIMONY
Dr. Sarah Chu, Director of Paul in Reform, from the Pearl Motors Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law School Testifies on NYPD Forensic Practices
1:50:16
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3 min
Dr. Sarah Chu, drawing from her experience at both the Pearl Motors Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law School and the Innocence Project, critiques the NYPD's approach to forensic science and transparency. Advocating for compliance with best practice standards seen in federal agencies and other jurisdictions, she suggests extending local laws for forensic testing transparency to the NYPD and establishing systems for error correction and public notification.
Sarah Chu
1:50:16
Hi, Cherisalam, council members.
1:50:19
Thank you so much for holding this hearing and for the opportunity to to testify today.
1:50:23
My name is Doctor Sarah Chu.
1:50:25
I'm the director of Paul in reform at the Pearl Motors Center for Legal Justice at Cardozo Law School.
1:50:30
Prior to my current position, I spent 15 years building the forensic science policy program at the Unison's project.
1:50:38
And, Cherishlam, we have been deeply enriched by your leadership on the board there.
1:50:46
So I wanted to take my time in the oral testimony to offer some ideas with respond in response to what Mister Fenton said about NYPD's response to forensic science issues.
1:50:59
As chair salam Appley pointed out that a posting quality management documents or policies and procedures for forensic testing It's something that the FBI, the DEA, the ATF does.
1:51:15
It is a recommendation by the National Commission on Forensic Science.
1:51:18
It's no longer a best practice.
1:51:20
It's a basic expectation.
1:51:23
And I really think that this is something that we should extend to NYPD.
1:51:30
The New York City Council passed local laws 8586 in 2013 to require this.
1:51:35
Of OCME in their DNA testing.
1:51:38
And so I don't see why the rest of our forensic testing provided in the city shouldn't also appeared to the same rules of transparency as well as the root cause analysis recommendation law that was passed in 2013.
1:51:54
Mister Fenton mentioned that that NYPD adheres to the requirements of accreditation and forensic science oversight by the state.
1:52:05
And I would say yes, and we can do better.
1:52:09
And do you know why I know we can do better because they do it better in Texas.
1:52:14
So in Texas, all labs are required to be accredited.
1:52:17
And when something happens, when something goes wrong, it's called a significant event that it gets sent up to the commission where the commission can transparently evaluated, investigated if needed, and and report on it to the public.
1:52:34
We do have a commission in New York State, but it's not statutorily in powered to conduct investigations in the same way.
1:52:41
And so I think that for us to really have justice and forensics, that we need systems of repair.
1:52:48
Repair is a theory that looks at what happens, how a system responds when an error is made, when there's a breakdown, your values as an institution come out in how you fix a problem.
1:53:00
And so to do that, I hope that the city council could consider extending those local laws 85 and 86 from 2013 to NYPD.
1:53:11
And establish some system of duty to correct and notify.
1:53:16
So the duty to correct when something goes wrong and the duty to notify all impacted people.
1:53:23
Thank you very much.
Yusef Salaam
1:53:25
Thank you for your testimony as well.